


What's in a Name?

by anniviech



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Jessica Jones (TV)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Mistaken Identity, Swearing, but is still a rather major subject though, while Kilgrave's listed in the characters he doesn't directly appear in person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-08-10 23:59:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7866847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anniviech/pseuds/anniviech
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How much trouble can a small coincidence like a shared surname cause? (Apparently a lot.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A plotbunny ambushed me when I noticed Jessica and Martha sharing a surname, and the next thing I knew my fingers were typing down several pages over a simple mistaking. Welp.

The Doctor let out a deep breath, resting his arms on the console of the TARDIS. He was lucky he had managed to land the Old Girl in once piece; it had been a rather close call for a moment there. Looking up at the increasingly weakly glowing Time Rotor with a searching look, he wondered just what they had bumped into while following a trace she'd picked up on and nudged him towards... There weren't many things that could throw a TARDIS off course like that.

He received no answer from her though, since she had shut her telepathic circuits down as she'd fallen back on backup power supply with only the most necessary, basic systems running. Throwing off whatever they had collided with and getting back on track had apparently cost her more power than he had expected. It was a good thing she didn't seem to have taken too much damage from what he had gathered from a cursory inspection, though, and should thus be able to generate energy from the local atmosphere. It was just likely going to be a painstakingly slow process if he didn't find anything to help her power up...

Sighing, he patted the console once before going to collect his coat that was hung over one of the coral-like struts, intent on investigating whatever had led them here. That, and to look for any means to help powering his ship up.  
Stepping out of the TARDIS and closing the door behind him, the Doctor took a quick look around. Hm, Earth it seemed then. One of its metropolises, to be exact – a look to his right revealing familiar buildings told him it was one he had been to not all that long ago. His Time-sense pointed towards the twenty-first century, though curiously enough it felt a little... hazy.

He frowned.

Come to think of it, something in the atmosphere felt off, too, he just couldn't quite put his finger on what...

"Hello!"

The Time Lord turned towards the source of the voice in surprise, pulled out of his musings, and spotted a small, elderly lady in a knit peach coloured cardigan, holding a plasticbag and key ring in her hand. She'd stopped in front of the entry of the building behind them and his TARDIS and was smiling up at him, apparently looking for a conversation.

"Oh, hello!" he cheerfully returned, turning around to fully face the woman.

"Are you here to see Miss Jones again?"

 _Miss Jones?_ Ohh, whatever the TARDIS had picked up on must've brought him to Martha then – he wondered what it might be she needed his help for this time, and if it might have to do with the atmosphere feeling off.  
It certainly seemed like he was going to visit her again at this place if this woman had seen him around before, curiously enough. Well, something had been acting up with the Old Girl before they'd landed and his Time-sense was a little woozy, so it was quite possible timelines had gotten a bit skewed along the way...  
No matter, he would figure it out later.

"Why yes, I believe I am!" he replied after the innitial surprise of hearing Martha's surname mentioned, bouncing on the heels of his feet once while his hands disappeared in the pockets of his trousers underneath the coat.

"Do come in then, it's nice to see the girl is having some fine company at last," the old lady commented.

The Doctor tried to cover his frown at that information with a smile as he followed her towards the door of the building, wondering why Martha having 'fine company' would be unusual. "Doesn't she have many visitors?"

"Oh, there've been all sorts of people here, but most of them don't return a second time. And it's often not the nice sort of company either, you know," she added in a conspiratorial tone. "Must have to do with that office of hers. Why a young woman like her would do such job on her own in this city is beyond me."

He didn't try to hide the frown on his face this time.

"But look at me, gabbling on! I'm sure you can't wait to see her again."

The woman switched the key ring to the hand holding the plastic bag and swung the front door to the flat complex open with her now free one, and the Doctor reached a long arm out to hold it open for her.

"My, and such a gentleman, too!" she chuckled as they walked through another door and into a rather bleak looking corridor, until they came to a stop in front of a what appeared to be the door to the woman's flat.

When the Doctor didn't immediately continue on his way, hovering behind her waiting to see if she was going to say more, she paused in unlocking her flat and angled her face towards him.

"Have you forgotten your way again, dear? It's on the fifth floor, right at the end of the hallway."

"Ah, right! Thank you then!"

With the conversation coming to and end, he made a beeline for the lift placed at the end of the corridor once the woman had entered her flat, and pressed the beaten looking button next to the '5' inside. The ride up was short, and as soon as he stepped out of the lift he had to smirk at what he spotted engraved on the window of a door on the other end of the corridor: 'Alias Investigations'.

 _'More like_ Alien _Investigations, I take it.'_

That explained that odd comment from the neighbour. Looked like Martha had gone freelance – good on her! Though why she had decided to move all the way to New York for that remained a mystery to him, but he supposed he could always just ask her.  
Fishing his right hand out of his pocket, he knocked three enthusiastic times on the door before placing it back and letting his gaze wander around while he waited for the door to get answered, taking in the odd little cracks and stains on the doorframe and walls.

When it was opened, he returned his attention back to the front to greet Martha with a wide smile and had just enough time to register a sharp intake of breath from a woman that was decidedly not Martha, before his world exploded in pain as a fist connected - rather strongly, he might add - with his jaw.  
In fact, the punch was hard enough to twist his body around and make him stumble to the ground, and he just about managed to catch himself on his knees and an elbow in surprise.

What the hell had _that_ been for?!

Gathering his wits, he was just about to face the assailant and ask exactly that, when a knee was pushed painfully into his back, pinning him to the ground, followed by a sharp sting in his neck and the feeling of liquid being pushed into a vein.

" _Oi!_ Whyddyuuh..." His voice turned into a slur and the ground began to swim in front of his eyes in ways it should not be doing under the local conditions.

Blimey, that was some strong stuff he got injected with.

He concentrated to determine the unknown drug in order to metabolise it, while struggling to get up and move the unexpectedly strong weight off his back, but before he had any success with either move his neck stung with a second prick and he felt his consciousness fading.

* * *

When awareness began to return to him, his ears took in the sound of two voices speaking, but neither of them sounded familiar, followed by the realisation that his body was ungracefully slumped over some chair. The Time Lord struggled to open his eyes, the lids fluttering heavily with the effort.  
It took him a few more seconds until he was aware enough to register the words being said.

"…–think he's waking up..."

" _Shit!_ "

The exclamation was followed by the sound of drawers being opened, and rifling through what he assumed were the contents.

"God damn it, that were barely twenty minutes! Did those experiments heighten his resistance, too?! Like it's not bad enough already that he just doesn't stay dead..."

He decided to simply continue listening to the exchange for now, hoping to glean some information about what was going on, while working his way through the components of the drug in his system (and a pounding headache accompanying the process). That really was quite a potent piece of work running through his body.

"You still carry that on you?" the first, male voice asked.

"Ever since his body disappeared – better prepared than sorry," the second one - female - replied.

While he pondered the oddness of the last statement, he heard steps moving closer, and the next thing he knew his hands were being taped together behind his back (with duct tape, he absentmindedly noted).

Okay, now would be the time to get active.

He opened his eyes and lifted his head to take a look at his attackers slash captors, but as soon as he did so the tape was swiftly wrapped around his mouth too, even so far as almost going all the way around his head (he mentally winced; getting that off was going to take some hair with it).

With that he was reduced to staring indignantly at his captors, his sight getting increasingly clearer. At least he had managed to metabolise the majority of what turned out to be an extremely potent opioid by now. (Really, who just carried stuff like that around?!)

Watching him, was the unfamiliar pale skinned woman from before who'd opened the door before attacking him, crossing her arms in front of her chest after dropping the roll of duct tape on the desk next to her. Or rather glaring daggers at him, really. Taking in her slender frame, the Doctor couldn't help noticing that she really didn't look very capable of pinning him down the way she had. Sure, he might not be the most buff bloke himself, and he'd been a bit handicapped with the drug, but he still had Gallifreyan physiology compared to the weaker human muscle structure – he should've been able to at least raise himself up from the floor.

With that thought his eyes moved to the other person in the room, a dark skinned man who hovered  a little behind the woman, with a glare that looked a bit more on the nervous side. Maybe the man had helped in pinning him down?

His inspection was cut short when the woman spoke to the man without ever taking her eyes off the Doctor.

"Leave. I'm going to ask that asshole some questions."

The Doctor arched his brows. And people called _him_ rude?

The man hesitated for just a moment before declaring, "I'm not leaving you alone with him."

That made the woman finally tear her gaze off the Doctor, turning around to face the other man.

"Shit, Malcolm! I appreciate the thought, really I do – but it's. Not. _Safe_."

The Doctor frowned with indignation at that. They were the ones attacking him and talking about him not staying dead, and yet _he_ was supposedly not safe?

"Don't you think I know that?! In case you've forgotten, I'm part of this too, Jessica." There was a pause as they stared at each other. "And you've dealth with this on your own for long enough... You might need the help."

The man - now identified as Malcolm - continued to stare at Jessica (who looked less then thrilled by his declaration), until he seemed to think of something and rummaged through the pockets of his trousers. After a second he pulled out a slim smartphone with earphones attached to it, then proceeded to plug one of the earbuds into his ear, holding the other one in his hand. After touching the display of the phone, the Doctor could make out the faint sound of music playing from it.

"As soon as he says something funny I'll stop listening and leave."

That was... a rather unique way of dealing with the situation, the Doctor mused. What did he mean with 'funny', though? Sure, sometimes his technobabble and commentary of spatio-temporal related things tended to go over peoples' heads, or in the rare example even freak them out, but literally plugging one's ears to avoid listening to him? _Really_?

His two captors seemed to have a silent battle of wills, before Jessica eventually sighed in frustration and shook her head, apparently giving in. Her attention then returned to the Doctor, and steeling her expression again, she made her way over to him, all tensed muscles and clenched jaw.

She came to a stop in front of the Time Lord and placed her hand at one end of the tape near his left ear, hazel eyes boring into his.

"Listen carefully, asshole: one wrong word and I'll crush your jaw. Got it?"

The Doctor's frown deepened at the open hostility towards him but nodded once, signaling he understood. Which was promptly followed by the woman ripping the tape off, making him yelp.

"Ow! Blimey! Is this how you treat all your visitors?!"

"No, the violence is specially reserved for you," she retorted, voice laced heavily with sarcasm.

He stared at her in confusion, wondering just what he might do in his personal future to get such a reaction. He must've done something pretty big to antagonise the woman to the point of attacking and drugging him on sight.

"If I weren't me, you might've put someone to sleep for good with that dose you gave me, you know," he couldn't help pointing out in a slightly accusing tone. It _had_ been beyond careless!

"Too bad it didn't work on you."

His frown deepened. "I'm serious. You could've killed someone!"

Instead of showing any hint of remorse, the woman had the gall to scoff at that. "Don't tell me you've suddenly developed a sympathy for other human beings."

The Doctor felt his own jaw tighten at the callous response. The confusion increased as well, wondering why she'd presume he wouldn't be sympathetic towards humans. Didn't sound like someone who actually knew him. "Oh, I haven't – it's always been there. Particularly for humans, in fact."

"What, no longer even seeing yourself as one of us? God, as if your ego hasn't been bullshit-level before, now you've also developed some kind of Übermensch complex?"

"Nope, not really _Mensch_ at all," he mumbled. "Look, something is confusing me here; you talk as if you seem to know me? Have I been here before, have we met?"

She gave him an unimpressed look. "Seriously? The amnesia-card isn't gonna work shit here, _Kevin_."

He blinked. "Who's Kevin?"

Jessica's jaw tightened again. "You know, if you want another punch you only have to ask."

"Alright, alright, no need to get worked up. My face is still smarting from the last one, thank you very much." He took it as a good sign that his words weren't, in fact, followed by another punch. "This is a bit... complicated, and I'm starting to think we might even be dealing with a bit of a mistaking here..." Seeing her narrow her eyes, he quickly added, "Just, humour me for now please? I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for it all."

When he got no direct, negative reaction to his plea, he decided to take his chances.

"Well then, firstly; hello there. I'm the Doctor."

The only reaction his introduction got, was a twitch of Jessica's fist which he was sure was itching to reacquaint itself with his face.

"Right," he quickly continued, deciding to switch his approach, "So, someone named Kevin appears to bear some resemblance to me?"

For the first time Malcolm joined the exchange with a scoff of his own.

"More like being your exact copy, down to the voice. If you aren't him, how can you explain _that_?"

Jessica angled her face to the man with an incredulous glare. "Don't tell me you're buying anything that prick is saying. He's just playing us!"

"I didn't say I did! Give me some credit," Malcolm shot back. "But still, why didn't he try to command me to do anything yet? Don't you think it's just a bit strange?"

"I don't know, maybe he's scared for his face, maybe it's part of some fucked up plan. Maybe he just wants to confuse me into letting my guard down, just to make you jump out the window the next second!" she exclaimed with a sweeping motion of her arm towards the single window in the room. "What I _do_ know is that he's absolulety not to be trusted. And you of all people should know that, too."

Tense silence spread as the two humans once again stared at each other.

"I take it this Kevin can somehow compel people to do things?" the Doctor prompted somewhat hesitantly, to which both directed their heated stares towards him. "By vocal commands, judging by your safety measures of taping my mouth closed and plugging your ears?" he continued, some of the pieces beginning to click, even if he was still confused for the most part.

Their expressions turned wary, Jessica's body stiffening, which confirmed his assumption (and left a rather uneasy feeling in the back of his mind).

"Well, untie me then."

Jessica's eyes widened and she moved to stop Malcolm, already reaching for his shoulders, until she noticed he was still standing right where he was. Malcolm looked surprised himself, staring at his unmoving feet and then the earbud still placed between his fingers, before meeting Jessica's equally baffled eyes.

"See? Nothing happened, which - if I guessed right - should prove I'm not this Kevin person," he suggested, waiting with bated breath to see how it would be received.

Both turned their heads to stare at him.

Staring was good, though – better than fists flying in any case. Seemed like he was going somewhere with his hunch then, even if it set off warning bells in his head. Maybe he could finally get through to them now - especially Jessica's unreasonable hostility - and actually work out what this whole situation was about.  
Using the stunned silence he decided to try his luck; no time like the present.

"Would you mind untying me, though? This _is_ getting a little uncomfortable..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go, a whole lot of confusion over one shared surname. I have some vague ideas for where this thing might go, though I’m not sure whether it will be worth working them out or not… Depends on how persistent that plotbunny will remain, I guess (should there even be any interest in more).
> 
> In any case, thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Managed to tickle another short chapter out of the muse in-between working on another project. I admit I had a little too much fun spreading general confusion all around...

The Doctor stretched and wiggled his fingers behind his back, trying to encourage some blood flow into the long digits. His little attempt at convincing his captors of not being who they assumed him to be had apparently not been quite enough to gain sufficient trust in order to be freed from his restraint. Ah well, he'd only been half betting on it, anyway, but it sure would've been more comfortable...

He'd ignored Jessica's annoyed huff and jab at his intelligence following his request, choosing to let his eyes do a quick scan of the room instead of replying to her. What they took in made him mentally frown; nothing out of the ordinary, no technical gadgets or artifacts of even the slightest alien origin – not even a single personal trinket to decorate the walls or shelves. Not something that he'd expect from Martha's work environment.

Speaking off...

"More importantly, where's Martha?" he interrupted Jessica's attempt at riling him up with another vocal jab, returning his eyes on her.

Clenching her jaw at being cut short, the dark haired woman bit out a "Who?"

"Martha Jones," he clarified. "Doesn't she live or work here?"

When the Doctor didn't get a reaction other than a frown from the woman, he directed his eyes to a confused looking Malcolm.

"Jessica's the only Jones around here," the man replied after a second with a small shake of his head.

The Time Lord frowned, before his eyes widened with realisation. "Oh. Ohhh... You're a Jones, too!" he exclaimed back into Jessica's direction, another piece clicking into place. The elderly lady from downstairs must've also mistaken him for this Kevin then, wanting to visit a Miss _Jessica_ Jones...  
"It looks like we really do have a mistaking going on here. See, I thought I was visiting my friend Martha..."

" _Thought_?" Jessica shot back sarcastically, crossing her arms in front of her chest and giving him an unimpressed look.

"Complicated story," he replied. "Look, the important thing is, this is all just a big misunderstanding. You are not who I was expecting to see, and I'm not who you think I am. Just a big, funny coincidence that I ended up here - or strange twist of fate, whatever you prefer to call it - and believe me, this kind of thing happens to me more often than you'd–"

"Cut the bullshit!" Jessica's shout cut his ramble short. "No one is believing the stupid little tale you're spinning here, so just tell me how you survived and what the hell you want, or I really _will_ crush your jaw and shut you up myself!"

The Doctor stared at her with raised brows, taken aback by her aggressive outburst. "Blimey, this Kevin must've really gotten your knickers in a twist..."

Not a second after the words had left his mouth, Jessica's fist connected with the surface of the massive desk that stood next to the chair he was tied to, breaking the sturdy wooden tabletop cleanly in half, effectively startling the Time Lord into stunned silence.

His attention was soon redirected from the broken piece of furniture when the pale woman leant in closely into to his face, hands supporting her upper body on the arms of the chair he sat in, hazel eyes blazing dangerously into his.

"Give me one reason not to do the same to your face..." she hissed darkly, the quiet quality of her voice belying the very real danger in the threat.

The Doctor's thoughts raced.

Was Jessica not human, or at least not entirely? The strength she had just shown went beyond an ordinary human's limitations, especially when you took in her slender frame which did not hint at the typical signs of someone practicing martial arts or doing any other kind of physical workout... and her hand which did not even show any reddening from the impact with the desk. Plus, if you took in the force of her earlier punch and the way she had been able to hold him down, apparently all on her own...  
He couldn't make out any prominent features that would give a different species away, though, at least not from what he could see or smell or otherwisely sense...

In any case, he should probably calm the situation down a little before trying to find out more about that.

"I assume Kevin is human?" he started, but when he heard Jessica's hands clenching around the arms of the chair, making the material creak, and saw her eyes narrowing, he decided to get straight to the point and quickly added, "Check my heartbeat."

Rassilon, he hoped he was not making a wrong assumption here. The supposed resemblance to his current regeneration was, admittedly, rather worrisome...

His instruction seemed to have the desired effect of momentarily distracting Jessica from her aggression, making her frown, apparently thrown off track.

"What?"

"Check my heartbeat," he repeated calmly.

"Why?" she more demanded than asked.

"Because I'm not." When Jesscia simply continued frowning in confusion, he elaborted, "Human, that is. Usually I don't advertise this fact, but in this situation I'll make an exception. I assume you might be a bit more open-minded about it, what with..." He nodded his head towards the broken desk in lieu of not being able to gesture with his hand.

Jessica held his gaze for several moments, but when he made no move to break the eye contact she finally raised a hand towards his throat, her own moving as she swallowed.

He just hoped she didn't get other ideas and went to strangle him instead.

She pressed her warmer fingers against his skin, the movement in her jaw giving away that she was clenching her teeth again. He was really starting to wonder what his supposed look-alike had done in order to cause so much hostility and earn what he was beginning to recognise as rather deep disgust.

Jessica's frown deepened after a moment, her eyes flicking between his, before she removed her other hand from the arm of the chair and went for his chest, working her way past his coat. After another moment she recoiled in surprise.

"What the hell... Is that some weird-ass side effect from the experiments?! Got greedy and needed two to live now?" she accused, her face a mixture of shock and repulsion.

"What?" Malcom's confused voice asked from the side, reminding the Doctor that he was still there, too.

"Really, Jessica?" The Doctor couldn't help a bit of diappointment slipping into this voice. It didn't seem to matter how many facts he gave her, she still seemed determined to twist her own theory around them to continue seeing him as someone he was not. (Or at least he really hoped had nothing to do with him.)  
He turned his head to face Malcom. "She just took note of the two hearts I have, which, by the way, go along nicely with a very complex binary vascular system that I assure you would not be compatible with a human body – no matter how much she tries to talk herself into this belief," he added the last part while returning his gaze on Jessica.

Silence followed his statement.

It was Malcolm who found his voice first after several moments. "...So if you say you're not human, then what are you? Alien?"

The Doctor winked cheekily at him in reply.

"Don't tell me you believe his bullshit!" Jessica was quick to find her voice again, too.

"I'm not exactly saying that just yet, but... I mean, his command didn't work on me, and after the Incident we can't really deny there's alien life out there, can we? The guy who was responsible for it also looked pretty human to me, despite everything, at least from what you could see on the internet."

The Doctor was a bit relieved to find that Jessica was actually listening to what Malcolm was saying.

"Like, I don't know, maybe I'm completely wrong about this," the young man continued, "But maybe this guy here is some kind of... shapeshifter or something, and for whatever stupid reason really just took on Kilgrave's looks?"

Another beat of silence followed that suggestion, with Malcolm himself not looking entirely convinced by the idea.

Well, as wild as the suggestion was, the Doctor had to admit Malcolm wasn't _completely_ off about the shapeshifting-bit there... (He wondered about the mentioned name, though. 'Kilgrave'? Could you get any more ominous than that? Though then again it somewhat reassured him that they truly seemed to be talking about a different person here, and not something along the lines of an odd future version of him – he'd never go by a silly name like _that_.)

"What incident?" the Time Lord finally asked when no further elaboration seemed to come from the other man, wondering which one exactly Malcolm was talking about in this case.

It was Jessica who answered him. "Oh please. 2012? Aliens messing up half of New York? Or did your 'amnesia' erase that bit, too?" she asked sarcastically, apparently not quite ready to let go of her doubt towards his sincerity.

The Doctor furrowed his brow as he couldn't recall any invasion that year solely centered on New York. (Yet?) "Still, you should've already been aware of alien life before that, shouldn't you?"

"What?" Both of the humans asked at the same time.

"Oh come on, not too long before that the Earth was invaded by Daleks - hijacked across space even!"

Malcolm mumbled another "What?" in confusion at that, while Jessica simply gave the Doctor another unimpressed look.

"Surely you couldn't have missed that?!" the Doctor asked incredulously at their reactions. "I mean, Donna certainly managed to, but then she was... a huge exception." He lowered his eyes for a moment, swallowing down the emotion that came up unbiddenly with the memory of the redhead.

When he looked up again, both humans were still just staring at him.

Something wasn't right about this.

"And even if you did, it should've been all over the news! So you should've at least heard of it, never mind whether you believed it or not," he tried again.

The Doctor fixed his gaze on Malcolm, hoping to get some more insight from him as he'd been the one to raise the alien topic, but the dark skinned man shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"No idea what you're talking about."

Something was _very_ not right about this.

The Time Lord shifted his attention inwards, focusing on the timelines. He was a little annoyed to find that his Time-sense was still uncharacteristically hazy, obstructing any clear view on the timelines, having expected any lingering aftereffects of the opioid he had been drugged with and metabolised to have disintegrated by now.  
He managed to catch tiny, shadowy glimpses of the recent past and future decades here and there, and what he was able to make out from those glimpses confused him even more.

It did not match up to what he knew.

But that didn't make any sense? Why would the timelines not match up to his knowlegde and support what those two had been suggesting instead? There should–

"OH! I'm so thick!" he exclaimed all of the sudden, visibly startling Malcolm, and made to slap his hand against his forehead. The movement ended in just a shrug of his shoulder, though, since his hands were still firmly tied together behind his back. "That explains what exhausted the TARDIS like that, and why the atmosphere feels off!"

"What the hell are you on about now?" Jessica's less than thrilled voice asked.

"Parallel universe!"

His moment of epiphany didn't earn quite the same excited reaction, though.

"You really want that punch you, don't you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, it's rather short - but I figured it might be better to update with a shorter chapter while inspiration struck, rather than delaying things just to fill it a bit more. Who knows when the next burst of motivation might hit :P  
> (And yes. Yes, this Malcolm here might've watched a few scifi movies too many, making his imagination run wild. Shh...)
> 
> And thank you so much for all the kudos and comments on the previous chapter! I had not expected so much interest in this random little plotbunny :0 Quite the pleasant surprise, indeed~


End file.
